It seems that the retirement of Adobe’s Flash® is coming sooner than later. This week, a business colleague sent me a link to an article on CNN.com (Adobe abandons mobile Flash development, report says) which reported that Adobe is abondoning its attempts to get Flash® to work on mobile devices. In addition, it says that Adobe sent an email to its partners…
“And with that e-mail flash, Adobe has signaled that it knows, as Steve Jobs predicted, the end of the Flash era on the web is coming soon.” [bold added by me]
The article goes on to say that Adobe will focus “on alternative application packaging programs and the HTML5 protocol. ”
“Flash became a dominant desktop platform by allowing developers to code interactive games, create animated advertisements and deliver video to any browser that had the plugin installed, without having to take into account the particulars of any given browser. However, with the development of Javascript, CSS, and HTML5, which has native support for video, many web developers are turning away from Flash, which can be a resource hog even on the most advanced browsers.”
And if your website is Flash-based? What do you need to do?
You need to convert your website using other web-development tools that will give you a similar look-n-feel. Converting your website means having your website re-developed by a web developer familiar with the latest versions of web-development software tools like CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and HTML. Each of these tools now has video capabilities that when combined, create powerful videos for your website.
If you want your website to be seen on mobile devices, you will convert your website sooner than later. If that is not a priority, you can plan ahead and have your website converted over the next year or two. Either way, your website needs to be re-developed. [Which is a good reason to call us 508-480-8833… Shameless plug..but hey!]
Caution: HTML5 is a radical upgrade from previous versions of HTML. The HTML5 protocol is very new and you should ask your web developer about their experience with HTML5. Even if you don’t understand everything they say, look at their body language to determine for yourself their level of comfort with HTML5.